earth online
  • All Categories
  • Data
  • News
  • Missions
  • Events
  • Tools
  • Activities
  • Instruments
  • Campaigns
  • Documents

Success Stories

Read articles about the successes of ESA's mission programmes and applications of the data obtained by the satellites.

  • News - Success Stories

    prompt photo
    21 Sept 2023

    Rome supersite helps validate atmospheric space data

    In the sprawling, urban area of Rome, where atmospheric composition is impacted by complex coastal weather and pollution, ESA supports a powerful observatory spread across several locations.

  • News - Success Stories

    prompt photo
    17 July 2023

    Young scientists bid farewell to ESA's wind mission

    Students and early career researchers are saying an emotional goodbye to Aeolus ahead of its upcoming reentry.

  • News - Success Stories

    prompt photo
    11 May 2023

    Global remote sensing of greenhouse gases ramps up

    With growing pressure to reduce the amount of greenhouse gases released into the atmosphere, recent research studies using the carbon dioxide monitoring TanSat mission are timely.

  • News - Success Stories

    prompt photo
    16 Dec 2022

    Atmosphere-studying Odin mission enjoys ongoing success

    More than two decades after it began operations, the Odin remote sensing satellite is continuing to make strong contributions to high-impact atmospheric science.

  • News - Success Stories

    prompt photo
    24 Nov 2022

    Drones join the campaign to validate Aeolus data

    In June and September 2022, the Askos component of the Joint Aeolus Tropical Atlantic Campaign (JATAC), organised by ESA and its international partners, was expanded with new ground-based, drone and radiosonde measurements. The main objective of this campaign was to calibrate and validate Aeolus satellite observations.

  • News - Success Stories

    prompt photo
    16 Sept 2022

    Satellites track the health of the ozone layer

    ESA’s Earth observation activities are contributing to international efforts to monitor and preserve the layer of stratospheric ozone that blankets the planet.

  • News - Success Stories

    prompt photo
    24 Jan 2022

    Dust aerosol campaign validates Aeolus data

    Prepared, implemented and executed by a consortium of French universities and research institutions, under the umbrella of the French Space Agency (CNES) and the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), the Clouds-Atmospheric Dynamics–Dust Interactions in West Africa (CADDIWA) campaign took place on Sal Island in Cape Verde, from 6 to 25 September 2021.

  • News - Success Stories

    prompt photo
    13 Dec 2021

    Ship trails in the Bay of Biscay observed using PROBA-V imagery

    Ship trails have been perceived as convincing evidence of aerosol-cloud interaction. Ship emissions have been proven to contribute by about 1.9% and 2.9% to the increase in the global total and fine-mode aerosol optical thickness (AOT) respectively over a five year period (Peters et al. 20212).

  • News - Success Stories

    prompt photo
    15 Oct 2021

    Askos campaign validates Aeolus data

    From July to September 2021, the European Space Agency (ESA) organised the Joint Aeolus Tropical Atlantic Campaign (JATAC) in Cape Verde.

  • News - Success Stories

    prompt photo
    15 Mar 2021

    1 km resolution aerosol optical thickness retrieved from PROBA-V

    The ESA SPAR@MEP project aims to deliver a long-term data record (LTDR) of aerosol optical properties and surface reflectance from SPOT-VGT and PROBA-V observations.

  • News - Success Stories

    prompt photo
    5 Mar 2021

    Monitoring aerosol properties in the Indian Ocean

    A ship-borne photometer of CIMEL CE318-T type was permanently installed in early January 2021 aboard the French research vessel Marion Dufresne in the frame of the MAP-IO (Marion Dufresne Atmospheric Program - Indian Ocean) research programme

  • News - Success Stories

    prompt photo
    3 Feb 2021

    Traceability of AERONET-EUROPE to the GAWPFR WMO reference for Aerosol Optical Depth

    Within the IDEAS-QA4EO ESA project a precision filter radiometer (PFR) travelling standard was installed at the European calibration site of AERONET to provide continuous traceability of aerosol optical depth measurements to the World reference maintained at Davos through a PFR Triad.

  • News - Success Stories

    prompt photo
    19 May 2020

    Forty years of heritage data highlight warming European lakes

    In the last decade, climate change has taken centre stage in both the public and scientific arenas, as increasingly extreme weather and human impact on the environment have become more apparent.